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The Amerimn Colonization Society. 



SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY, 



Auuual Discourse by Rev. LEIGHTON PARKS, D. D. 



THE SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



Nbcboloqt. — The American Colonization Society is called upon, at the be- 
ginning of the Seventy-Fourth Annual Report, to record the names of a Vice- 
President, and of a Life Director, who have deceased during the past year. 

Henry M. Schieffelim. Esq., of New Vorlt,' elected a Vice President in 1851, 
did very much to stimulate the religious, educational, and industrial growth 
of Liberia. All the denominations ol that Elepublic shared in his benevolence. 
Not a few of the schools owed their supply of books, and many a cotfee and 
sugar farm its means of improvement, to the generosity of the deceased. Very 
recently he had been supplying wire fencing, free of charge, to indigent farmers, 
which has done much to encourage stock raising. The only thorough explor- 
ation of the country interior of Liberia was executed at his expense, and he 
served the Republic as its Charge d'Atfaires to the Government of tiie United 
States from 1865 to 1874. Mr. rfchietfelin has left no legacy more precious 
than the example of his untiring and unselfish efforts for the good of thousands 
in Africa he never saw and never expected to see. 

Rev. William H. Steele, D. D., of New Jersey, constituted a Lii» Director 
in 1871, will be greatly missed in numerous organizations for the moral and 
spiritual elevation of humanity. His faithfulness and eflBciency and his calm 
judgment and genial nature endeared him to his associates and won their con- 
fidence. .Much that he did was unknowii to the world, for he was uniformly 
unostentatious. 

In the decease during the year of Edward S. Morris, Esq. of Philadelphia, 
Pa., this Society is deprived of a friend to whose decision of pi^pose, earnest 
and persevering labors, and ever ardent benevolence, the cause of African 
Colonization is largely indebted. 

Receipts and Disbursements. — The total receipts during the year I8'.tu were 
$14,467.61. Of this sum, $881.50 came from donations; $3,045.30 from lega- 



( 



CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY.' 

S\an.day Kvenlng, January 18, 18©L 






cite, income ami annuity: $619.20 from applicants toward cost of passage 
to Liberia; fl, 44(1. 50 from rent of the Colonization Building; $378.40 for 
education in Liberia; $1,31!».71 for interest on temporurv loans, and $(J,750 
from loans matured. These amounts, with the balance in the treasury at the 
beginning of tht- year, $3,03i>.Jt;, havt- placed at the dispo.sal of the Society 
$l«,l03.i>7. The disbursemi-nts of the year, including ^lu. .''>•;•;. H5 for passage 
and settlement of emigrants, have amounted to $14,7uu.t;4, leaving a balance 
in the treasury, December 31, 1890, of $3,304.23. 

Kmickation. — Sixty-three emigrants were sent to and settled in Liberia 
during the year, namely, fifty-three by the bark Liberia, which sailed June 1st 
from .New York ; and nine by the same vessel, which also sailed from New York, 
November 1st. Of these, one was from Boston. .Mass. ; four from Halifax, N. C. ; 
seven from Columbus. Ga. ; three from Monticello. Fla. : twenty-eight from 
Sturgis and nine from Amory, .Miss.; seven from .Morrillton, .\rk. ; one from 
Medford. Wis., and three from St. Paul, .Minn. Thirly-lwo wore twelve years 
of age anil upwards, nineteen between eleven and two years, and two infants. 
Seventy-one were reported to be communicants of Baptist churches and 
eight of -Methodist churches. Of thft adult males, eleven are farmers, one a 
carpenter and builder, one a house-painter, and one a licensed Minister of 
the Gospel. 

They are an industrious and substantial class of people, having been selected 
from a very large number of applicants for the Society's aid. and they took 
with them an usual amount of baggage and articles likely to be of service in 
a new country. 

Letters have been received announcing the arrival in Liberia of these emi- 
grants. Of those who reached there in July it is stateil under date of October 
20th that " they have gone to work in earnest, and the land they occupy being 
of a superior richness, some of them are already enjoying vegetables planted 
by themselves.' Another citizen wrote October 24th, regarding the same 
party: ■■ The.<ie emigrants are industrious and iatelligeat, and they are highly 
pleased with their lands ; having at once taken possession they set about working 
them and erecting temporary liabitalions until they can secure for llicmselves 
• permanent dwellings. " 

Kev. Kzekiel Kzra .Smij,h, Minister Resident mid ("onsul-Cieneral of tbo I'liited 
Stales to Liberia, wrote from •• Monrovia, April 1. 1890," as follows: 

".Since I wrote you last I have seen much of Liberia. I have visited Cape 
I'almas. met witii liic ilifferent churches, and saw something of the operation 
uf the iiiRtitiitioris there. I had the plea.<iirt- to meet Bisiiops Ferguson and 
Taylor, and the leading men generally. I was much delighted while conversing 
with Hiiihop Fergu.>ioii to ascertain tire high hopes he entertained for Liberiaa 
future prosperity. The bishop is <loing etl'ective work. The emigrants last 
settled at Cape I'almas are doing well. The bullock and cart are considerably 

' I'aliiiu.s I went to Sinoe, the home of lion. Z. B. Roberts, associ- 
ate ^ the .Siipreiiie Court, Hon. James J. Ross, ex-attorney-geiieral. 
ex-Seiiatur Fuller, and other gentlemen of iiiMuence. who, iiotwitlistanding 
their pottitioiiB lut ollicials of the (lovernmeiit. have farms. The eniigraiita 
lucate<l at Sinoe in \hhh are moving on more and more successfully. 

" I next had the pleasure to spend a few days at (irand Ba.ssa, which com- 
priHen Lower and I'pper Buchanan and Rdiim. (Iraiid Bassa .siirimsses either 



of the towns or settloiiients iibovc nientiuii<'<l in jioint of conimcrciiil ti'iuisac- 
tions. While there I met some of the i.'niijjriinis who cunic in May. 1189. 
They iippeur to be doing well, and seem contented. 

"On the Ifitli ultimo, in company with lion. (!. T. (). Kinj^j. lion. H. A. 
Willirtins, Mayor of Monrovia, Col. .V. I). Williani.s, .Indf^e Dennis, and a number 
of other gentlemen, 1 embarked for(!nind (Jape .Muunt on u .small .sailing craft. 
AVe encountered a most tem[)estuoii.s voyage, arriving ut (y'ii[)e .Mount on the 
morning of the ITth, bringquite wet ami much fatigued. llon.C. T. <). King, 
myself, and others of the party called out to the .settlement where the emi- 
grants are located. After visiting each individual hou-se and after looking at 
their beautiful, jiromising farms, a meeting of all the new-comer.s was held at 
the school house. (), yes, they have buili tiiemselves a school house in the 
center of the settlement. .\t the meeting shcwt speeches were made i)y Mr. 
King iind myself, .\fterward, remarks by different persons of the emigrants 
were made. Each one expressed liimselt contented. Their farms, consisting 
in coffee, cassada, potatoes, yams, eddoes, cocoa, plantains, bananas, ginger, 
rice, &c., &c., are as pretty as any I have seen in the country. They have evi- 
dently, considering the surroundings, done remarkably well. I also visited the 
Protestant E[)i3copal .Mission at Cape .Mount, and observed somewhat of it8 
workings. I think it is doing a great, yea, a good work. Ca()e .Mount is, in- 
deed, a fine portion of this country." 

Emigration to Liberia every year under the auspices of the American Colo- 
nization Society has been uninterrupted for the past seventy years. Those 
now reported make the number sent since the civil war to be 4,201, and a 
total from the beginning of 16,209, exclusive of 4,722 recaptured Africans 
which it induced and enabled the Government of the United States to settle in 
Liberia, making a grand total of 21,921 persons to .whom the vSociety has given 
homes in Africa. 

Applications. — Never in the history of the Society have the applications for 
its aid to remove to and settle in Liberia been so numerous and urgent nor 
more intelligently and earnestly presented than during the past year. A care- 
ful estimate of these papers shows that one million or more of the people of color 
are seriously considering the matter of an early change of residence from the 
United States to Africa, a majority of them expressing their determination to 
remove as soon as opportunity permits. 

A few brief extracts from recent communications, each from a different State, 
are appended as indicating the widespread desire and numbers seeking the 
means of removal and settlement in Liberia : 

" I am greatly interested in the condition in which my race is living here in 
Mississippi, and I want to do something in the way of their and my removal 
to our fatherland — Africa." 

" I would ask for all the information you can spare me as I am in favor of 
all my people going to our own country.' 

'• I am a minister of the gospel and desire to go to Africa. There are a great 
many here that want to accompany me to our forefather's home." 

"There is a great stir in this region about going to Liberia, and as 1 am a 
minister of the gospel, the people are coming to me for instruction. This 
spirit is very high. I want to go to that Republic. We are in earnest in the 
matter." 



1 

•Several colored persons have recently been to nie for inlorinuiioii woiR-erii- 
ing Lilierhi, expressing themselves as very ilesirinis of going to that countrj'. 
Wuulil yon kiiully ii<l(lri-ss nii- on the matter, and iiil'unn me what assistance, 
if any. the Colonization Society would rtMider?" 

•• We have organized a society in thi.* county for tlie [jurpose of emigrating 
to !.,il)cria in and through the Colonization Society. We have already in 
number over live hundred making preparations to leave this county just as 
soon as possible." 

'• There are three thousand people in tins and tlie two adjoining counties 
who want logo to Liberia, but tiiey arc unable to jmy any juirt of the expense.'' 

"There are many hundred.s of our people here wlio wouM go to lJl>eria if 
they could get help from the Society or Congress." 

Liberia. — The action of the Legislature of Liberia at its last session regard- 
ing foreign affairs was greatly in advance of anything in the past. 

The grant to an English company of the sole right to collect, manufacture 
and e.xport India rubber in and from that republic, promises greatly to promote 
its industrial and financial interests. For this monoply 20,000 pounds sterling 
as a first installment was received on the llith June by the Government at Mon- 
rovia. The Legislature has also granted to the same company the right to es- 
tablish a bank under charter from the Government and to construct telegraphs 
a:id one or more railroads from the coast to the interior. 

The educational advantages of the Republic are increasing. The Methodist 
Epi8coj)al Seminary at .Monrovia has been reopened, and the Episcopalians have 
not only enlarged their school facilities at Cape Palraas and at Cape Mount, 
but they are preparing to open a boarding school on the St. Paul river. The 
Kicks Institute, an indigenous school established by the Baptists, is growing 
in influence and importance. It now contains over forty pupils, some of whom 
are .Aborigines, mostly of the Bassa tribe. 

.Mr. Soloman Hill, one of the founders of Arthington, has purchased from the 
Government of Liberia one thousand acres of land on the road leading to 
lioporo, on which to settle seven native youths whom he adopted while infants 
ami trained in the ways of civilized life. They have about reached their 
majority, and Mr. Mill purposes deeding them one hundred acres each, feeling 
assured that in two or three years they will give a satisfactory account of 
themselves and their property. These young men received a j)art of their 
education in the schools of this Society. 

The facts are that the Government ot Liberia attracts the social, commercial. 
and political economy of several millions of Africans, that for leagues about 
its settlements the kings and chiefs are friendly and even subordinate, and 
that its peojile have advanced in civilization and are successfully working out 
their destiny according to nineteenth century lights. 

TiiK FiTUiiE OK Afuica. — The publication of .Mr. Ilcnry M. Stanley's book, 
" Iti l)arkest Africa," and the activity on the ]>art of leading European nations 
in the partition of that continent, suggest reflections on the future of thai land 
an<l itH aboriginal inhabitants. 

Afriea, as it presents itself before Europe at the present moment, is a Held 
lor dipliiinatic manipulation, for cotnmercial enterprise and philanthropic ellbrt. 
.Nothing more, ('olonies of Europeans in that land are out of the question. 



As it apitears bet'ore Ainciicn it, is an lu-fim fur llic nulical .sdliilioii ol a 
perplexing domestic problem. 

So far as we have yet .«een we ilo nut bciievi' that the interests of tlie African 
will be seriously imperilcii by the movements of forei^'ncrs to occupy his 
country. 

In August last Lord Salisbury completed the jiartition of the continent, as 
far at least as it was possible to do so on paper; but lie iiimself ridiculed the 
pretentions by which Europe assumed the role of divider among her children 
of a vast unexplored country belonging to an alien race. Frontiers have been 
laid down with diplomatic ])recisi()n, but with only diplomatic precision, and 
they are published in maps. But no one for a moment imagines that these 
frontiers will be either definite or jierinanent. 

There is no European power that has the genius and facilities for coloniza- 
tion and commercial enterjjrise possessed by the English. Ft is certain that tiie 
enterprise and energy of her capitalists will secure for the greater i)ortion of 
Africa English inllucnce and Anglo-Haxon civilization. 

We have been asked how these enterprises will affect our work. We answer 
most favorably. As foreigners become better acquainted with Africa they will 
feel more and more the necessity and the importance of colonies in order to its 
civilization, and colonies of blacks from civilized lands. Mr. Stanley is <i noted 
as having said in a recent interview that " if we want to hold our own ground 
in Central Africa we must not send little parties of missionary workers as 
heretofore, but must pour in men by the scores or even by the fifties." This is 
colonization. 

There is not now the universal belief in the incapacity of the Negro which 
was fostered during the period of his bondage. Extensive travel and observa- 
tion in his original home have convinced both statesmen and philanthropists 
that it is not absolutely necessary that the control of his country should pass 
into alien hands in order to its prosperity. 

Sir John Pope Hennessy, a retired English governor, who. during his ad- 
ministration of the government of Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, carefully 
studied the people, es{)ecially the Aborigines in their native communities, 
makes the following suggestive remarks in the Xineteenth Ceiiturt/ for Septem- 
ber last : 

"When I visited Karabia, at the head of the Great Scarcies river, in 1873, 
the whole district was under Negro domination only. It was admirably gov- 
erned. I never saw a happier po])ulation. They were cheerful, contented, 
industrious, in their own way good agriculturists and able to manufacture 
most of the simple household articles they required. What a contrast between 
the smiling faces to be seen in the crowded streets of that Negro town and the 
careworn faces of Cheapside." 

The present enlightened Governor of the British Colony of Lagos, Sir Alfred 
Moloney, K. C. M. G., not only believes but is acting upon the belief that the 
solution of the African problem must devolve upon civilized Negroes from 
abroad. In a speech delivered on the 15th of November, 1889, in the Town 
Hall, Manchester, England, the Governor said that " the repatriation of edu- 
cated and industrious Negroes from the New World was the grand problem of 
future Africa. The progress of the tropical parts of the Continent in wealth 



ftod cirilicatioii must bi- for geiierntioiis tu come Jependeiit on tlifir |iro)/reS!) in 
agriculture " 

For gevcml years enuin^ipaJoM from Brazil iiave been immigrating to Lagos 
in small numburfi and in inconvenient craft, such as slovr sailing vessels, and 
the (lovernur liiiviii^ noticed the wLole.^ome results produced by their skill and 
onergy upon the iiidu.strial condition of the colony has )K>en untiring in bis 
etrort.'< to secure steam cctmmunication between Brazil and Lagos. It is said 
that there are one million of blacks in that country anxious to return to Africa. 
As a result of the indefati(;;uble exertions of the (Jovernor the steamship Bia/ra 
of the British .Mrican Steamship Company left Lagos on the ICth of August 
on her Jirst voyage to Hra/.il f<jr the purpose ol bringing back repatriates. She 
returned on the I'.'th of October with one hundred and ten jiasssngers, fourteen 
days from Bahia. The returned exiles included fifty-three males anti fifty-seven 
females, among whom there were thirteen children. 

The first of the vast fleet of steamers to follow, bearing home the exiles 
from the West, has thus successfully performed her voj'age. connecting for the 
present, not North but ."^outh .Vnierica with .\frica. Hut it is only a question 
ol time for North America; she will follow. 

It apftears to us that the most comprehensive, lar-reaching, and i)roductive 
plan for bringing that vast continent within the operations ot civilization and 
under the infiueuce of Christianity, would be to scatter and settle four mil- 
lions, or about one-half of the colored ]iupulation of this country in the land 
of their fathers. Place a million in Liberia, a million in the Niger districts 
and Vorubaland. which latter countr}* seems now open to receive them, a mil- 
lion on the Congo, and a million in Last Africa. With the knowledge of civ- 
ilization which these |>eoplc aci{uired in the house of bondage, with their ex- 
|>erience as ajrricullurists. mechanics, miners, engineers, teachers, and jireachers. 
they would soon cause the wilderness to bloom and blossom as the rose. 

The .Mahdis and Tippoo Tibs would forever retire before their advancing 
march. Peace, prosperity, and plenty would, for the first time iji innumer- 
able ages, arrive in Africa to stay. 

It may yet come to pass, that as Europe and America were unanimous in 
bringing the Negro away from his home, they may unite to assist in his repa- 
triation. Justice and the interest4ii of humanity alike demand it. It will cost 
money to make the great restoration. Iiut it will be money invested in the 
most remunerative of enterprises. 

IllH AMliKlCAN Cdl.OMZATION SOCIETY. 

Colonization Building, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue, 
\VA^sI-^INo'ro^I. u. c. 

li-tndfnl : Hon. Joii.s' II. H. Latkohi. 
Secretary and '/Veittiirrr : WlLLlAM ColTlNfiKR. 

KXKCl'TIVK COM.MITTKK: 

Judge CllAlttKU C. NoTT, I'liairimni. 
Kboi.halo P'kndali,, Ksq. Dr. William W. (Joddi.ng. 

Rev. TiioMAS C,. AuDiMu.v, U. !» Rev. A. J. IIintinoton, 1). D. 

Kcv. BvuoN SisuKHLA.so. I). D. Hon. J. C. Banckokt Davis, 



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